“It makes sense that a female leader would be able to understand the particular issues of women and steer them through the mid-career maze. However, despite high profile female leaders, the number of women in leadership remains stagnant. What is the disconnect?”

In this February 6, 2012 HBR Blog article, the author shares five specific things leaders — both men and women – can do to deliver the best leadership and support to aspiring women.

The 5 recommendations:

Demonstrate both hard and soft leadership skills.

Take decisive action, fast.

Inspire and look to the big picture.

Balance emotional labor.

Focus on leading.

More from the article:

”Women are not waiting for the revolution from above. Getting more women into leadership positions can only happen if they experience effective leadership — from both their male and female bosses. They prefer leaders with directing and enabling leadership skills. It’s through these skills that women can do their job well and work toward their longer term leadership aspirations more effectively.”

“If you take a moment to understand the idea, you have an opportunity to reevaluate and transform your retail customer experience in ways that could go a long way toward creating an ideal customer perception, and profitable customer behavior.”

“Building a sustainable Customer Culture takes courage, commitment and hard work. It is solely through Customer Culture that we establish and sustain the inspirational humanistic environment that builds mutually beneficial customer relationships. The unfortunate alternative to building a rich Customer Culture is the current luxury and retail business model where nameless sales people sell luxury products and services to anonymous customers, all in the course of a one-time soulless transaction.”

In this January 2012 white paper by The Luxury Institute, you will read about the seven critical steps the Luxury Institute espouses for luxury brands to build Customer Cultures that will dramatically increase customer and associate acquisition, retention and referral rates.

As all of us at DFS continue to evolve our approach to developing, delivering and measuring a true luxury customer-centric culture, this article serves as a wonderful reminder of the reason for our quest and challenges us to critically assess our strategies.

More from the article:

“Do it for your brand, do it for your associates, do it for your customers, do it for society, but most of all, do it for yourself. Building a true Customer Culture in your organization will dramatically enhance your own life experience. It will transform you from being just another business executive into a happy and thriving human being who enjoys a meaningful life with a far greater purpose than the pursuit of money. Ironically, the sales and profits will follow.”

“Managing our time needs to become a ritual too. Not simply a list or a vague sense of our priorities. That’s not consistent or deliberate. It needs to be an ongoing process we follow no matter what to keep us focused on our priorities throughout the day. I think we can do it in three steps that take less than 18 minutes over an eight-hour workday.”

In this July 20 2009 blog on HBR Blog Network, the author discusses the power of rituals to allow us to more effectively manage our time.

If you are like me, it is always helpful to learn ideas about managing your time better. I challenge you to try the simple steps in the article for a week and see if it doesn’t help you get more in control of your time.

More from the article:

“The power of rituals is their predictability. You do the same thing in the same way over and over again. And so the outcome of a ritual is predictable too. If you choose your focus deliberately and wisely and consistently remind yourself of that focus, you will stay focused. It’s simple.”